Friday, August 30, 2013

For
the second week running, popular singer Ayodele Balogun, aka Wizkid,
has been at the receiving end of criticism from music fans. The young
man’s ‘offence’ is his response to a fan, who had dared to correct him
for making a grammatical error in a posting on Instagram.

In answer to the fan’s tweet, Wizkid had
written on his Twitter handle: “Broke people always think they have an
opinion.” Instantly, other fans of the artiste had pelted him with
tweets, condemning his action. One of them reminded him that he owed his
success to the likes of the ‘broke’ fan and it was wrong not to
appreciate him.

Commenting on a popular blog, some of
them, however, engaged in an argument over the matter. While some
wondered if it was right to have corrected Wizkid’s grammatical blunder
publicly, others noted that the artiste’s response had exposed a
‘shocking’ side of him that they never knew.

A few fans actually called on the others
to stop buying Wizkid’s CDs and to shun his performances. Afterwards,
the debate dovetailed into an assessment of the behaviour of some
popular musicians in the country.

Some fans wondered why the artiste
seemed to have chosen to walk the tight rope of controversy rather than
emulate the likes of Don Jazzy and Tuface, whom they described as
humble. In the same breath, they compared him with an older artiste, a
rapper known for criticising a former President of the country, and
concluded that he stood the risk of talking his career into trouble.

Then, just a few days ago, the matter
assumed a different dimension as another popular singer, J Martins,
allegedly picked on Wizkid during an interview with a radio station
based in Abuja.

Martins was quoted on the social media
as saying, “‘I’m not taking any side. I don’t mean no beef, no
disrespect, and no hate. But let the truth be told. I don’t believe that
because you feel you have a few change you didn’t have a few years ago
and which you cannot guarantee having in a few years to come, then you
wake up and look at those people who have cheered you up, loved you,
supported your music, bought your CD’s, prayed for you – just because
you can lay your hands on some phone - and you call them ‘poor’. I am
not in and will never be in support of anyone who has such bad attitude.

“It needs to be corrected. We owe our
fans the duty of being good examples. That is why they hold us in high
esteem. That is why you are a role model and if you know you cannot be a
good role model, you have no business in music. You don’t know if it’s
that person that might help you tomorrow, whoever does that should be
checked.”

Wizkid was said to have replied Martins’
speech in a direct tweet to the latter’s Twitter handle, claiming that
he never insulted any fan nor called him ‘broke’. Then he allegedly
addressed J. Martins in another tweet, saying, “You have been in this
industry long enough to know better than this. I’m very disappointed
about your statement.”

But, evidently determined to avoid an
altercation with the younger artiste, J. Martins had said in another
tweet, “Let it be known that I never blasted @wizkidayo as falsely
reported. There is no point in trying to create a controversy that
doesn’t exist.”